About 12 years ago, a TV repairman friend of mine gave me this 19" Curtis-Mathes color TV from July, '84. It came to him with an intermittent loss of video. It might work an hour, week, five minutes, or month before acting up. A good slap on the cabinet would usually restore operation. It was in another shop before he got it and they couldn't find the bad connection, he could not find the bad connection, and I couldn't find the bad connection, either. I gave it to a friend of mine for him to use in his basement. Today, he told me that the TV was still working and it still needed a slap from time to time. Then, he gave it back to me. I brought it home and, sure enough, it still makes a fairly decent picture; but, it has either a loose connection or a cracked trace somewhere.
It appears that this TV was built by NEC for Curtis-Mathes. I doubt it was even assembled here; rather, shipped here from Japan already assembled. The CRT is of the ultra small neck inline type.
I do wish I could find a replacement control door; but, I doubt that will ever happen. I'm really not much into TV's this new; but, I guess I'll keep it since it's a CM and is in a metal cabinet. Over the years, I don't think I've seen too many 19" CM sets. Besides this one, I remember having a couple of slightly older 19" sets with the fake wood trim plastic cabinets and 14 position varactor tuner and I had one 13" from the mid '80's with a bad flyback. I never could find a flyback and it went to the trash. I have, however, had my hands on many CM consoles from the late '70's-mid '80's. Many of them were TV/stereo combinations. I think CM was probably one of the last to make a combination TV/stereo console.
07-22-2010, 09:10 PM
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